Bud Light Slammed for Sponsoring Toronto Pride—'They Deserve to Go Broke'

Bud Light has continued to anger conservatives after it was revealed that the beer brand sponsored acts at Toronto Pride.

The beer brand appears to be doubling down on its support of the LGBTQ+ community by sponsoring the Pride Month event in Canada. Video footage from the event has gone viral. One of the acts is seen performing on the Bud Light stage featuring what seem to be drag queens and scantily clad dancers dressed in leather and fishnet clothing. Twitter users who've seen the footage, posted by The Post Millennial, are furious with the brand. Bud Light has faced backlash and boycotts for almost three months now.

In early April, the company sent transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney a personalized can to help her celebrate "365 Days of Being a Girl." The move angered many, with musician Kid Rock posting a viral video of himself shooting crates of Bud Light with a machine gun. Customers then started boycotting products made by the parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev, which has led to the brand facing billions in losses.

Bud Light has never explicitly directly addressed the situation, though it released a statement in response, saying it "never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people." Bud Light added that "we are in the business of bringing people together over a beer," Brendan Whitworth, CEO of Anheuser-Busch, wrote in a public statement on April 14.

As recently as June 19, former Bud Light drinkers criticized the company for continuing not to issue an apology for the Mulvaney collaboration. More than two months later, Bud Light has sparked more fury with its Toronto Pride sponsorship.

Twitter user Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis brought the video to the attention of her almost half-a-million Twitter followers. "Bud Light has a stage at Toronto Pride. This is one of the acts. They deserve to go completely broke," she tweeted, sharing The Post Millennial's footage.

The act on stage in the video is Slash Need, while Bud Light branding can be seen around the stage that had been set up. The band appears to feature drag acts, while the dancers have pantyhose on their heads with cartoon eyes painted over the top.

The video has gained over 2.3 million views on Twitter, across The Post Millennial and Loupis' accounts, with thousands of people sharing their anger via comments and retweets. Multimedia journalist Beth Baisch was credited as capturing the footage for the conservative Canadian new site. "Bud Light gonna Bud Light," she wrote as she posted the video.

The comments have people calling the video "horrifying" and "disgusting", while Twitter user @larry0x asked, "What is [there] to be proud of in this," sharing a screenshot of a dancer with black tape covering their nipples.

Newsweek has reached out to the band Slash Need via email for further comment on the topic, and to Anheuser-Busch InBev for comment on its sponsorship of Toronto Pride.

Bud Light's decision to sponsor the 2023 Toronto Pride event hasn't come in response to anything that has happened this year. On its company website, the beer brand says that collaborating with this event is at this point a longstanding tradition.

"Bud Light Canada has been a proud partner of Pride Toronto for the last 10 years. This year, we're commemorating this milestone with Pride Toronto by featuring them on our can design, as well as continuing as the official beer sponsor of the festival."

The beer brand added: "In 2023, Bud Light Canada is also providing a total of $100,000 to various organizations supporting the LGBTQIA2S+ community across Canada."

To celebrate the 10th year of its synergy, Bud Light Canada launched a range of Pride beer cans, which featured the rainbow flag flying behind the logo on its cans.